


Unraveling

by coletterby



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Mental Instability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-19 01:17:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22802962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coletterby/pseuds/coletterby
Summary: It had been three years since Alphonse’s soul had rejected the iron armour.And they were still no closer to getting Edward back
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Kudos: 42





	Unraveling

It had been three years since Alphonse’s soul had rejected the iron armour. Three years since Edward was forcibly retired from the military. Three years since Roy had to install high walls around his property. Three years since he had to post a watch in his own house.

Three. Damn. Years.

And still no closer to getting Edward back.

“How is he?” The Colonel asked as he arrived at his door.

“He’s spent the day in the garden again. Seemed a bit brighter?” Replied Havoc, wheeling himself down the ramp Roy had installed following the incident. Roy nodded and ran his hands through his gently greying hair.

“Thanks.”

Havoc nodded and made his way out to Riza who was waiting with the car.

\-------

“Hi Ed,” Roy crouched down beside the golden haired child? (adult? invalid?), “What are you doing out here?”

The smile he got back was gentle but the lack of recognition in his eyes stung Roy. His eyes followed Ed’s up into the empty canopy of the tree under which they were sitting.

“Birds,” came the happy mumble of response. “Always talking.”

“What do they say, Edward?”

“They say the Colonel is a bad man. That we shouldn’t trust him.”

“Hmm.” Roy hummed gently in response, stroking his hand through Ed’s hair. This came up often. Roy never needed to wonder if Ed blamed him for everything but it was of no consequence. Roy blamed himself too after all.

“They say ….” Ed trailed off into a mutter, suddenly looking at the ground with his cheeks going red.

“What do they say, Ed?”

“HE’S A FUCKING MONSTER!” Ed’s face was screwed up in a ferocious scowl. All his teeth were bared and his eyes nearly closed with his glare. His face relaxed again. “But we shouldn’t swear. Al doesn’t like it.”

“That’s right, Edward. Shall we go in for some dinner?”

\-------

At the beginning, they had spoken to a doctor sworn to confidentiality.

Well, not at the beginning. But not too far after it.

The doctor had advised not to argue with Edward’s delusions. Arguing with Edward about the things he saw could make him very angry and upset. When he was upset, it tended to make everyone else upset as well. And when he was angry …well there was a reason Roy had increased the height of the wall.

Then again, the delusions weren’t the hardest part.

____

Roy was disturbed from his paperwork by the shrill of the telephone, the ring type informing him that it was an external line.

“Mustang.”

“You have to come home.” Havoc’s voice was clipped, the distortion of the line only slightly hiding the stress in his voice.

“I can’t. I have a meeting with the Council of Generals in ten minutes. I cannot miss it.” Roy had been waiting for this meeting for over a month. If Fuhrer Bradley was going to be defeated, he needed more military allies or he (and his team!) could end up on the wrong side of a Military Tribunal. He had to attend this meeting.

“He’s drawing again, sir.”

Roy felt a shiver up his spine.

“Where?”

“In the basement.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

_____

“What are you doing, Edward?” Roy cautiously crept down the stairs into the uncanny darkness holding his candle at head height. They had learned not to turn on the light in the basement when Edward started drawing. He didn’t like it.

“Equivalent exchange.” Came the response from the corner. “All the love you have will return to you.”

“You know you’re not supposed to be in the basement, Edward.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, Roy.” Ed’s voice was harsh and cold in the gloom. “My theory is perfect. We were wrong about the sacrifice needed last time. This time I know the right way. I will bring him back.”

The light finally found Edward, sitting in the centre of a large transmutation circle. Roy’s heart was in his throat.

“Edward, put the knife down.”

The blood was running in rivulets down Edward’s arm. The amount of blood needed to draw the circle accounting for the grey tinge of his skin. The knife was currently poised over his heart.

“Why, Roy? It’s the final step. The most equivalent of exchanges. My life, for his life. My love, for his. You being here even tips the weight in my favour. Your loss will be Al’s gain.”

It felt like the knife was ripping through Roy’s heart.

“You know he wouldn’t want that, Edward. Alphonse loved you…”

“Exactly!” Ed interjected. “That’s exactly why it will work. He … I have to. The exchange. He’s mine!”

From experience, Roy knew that the confusion beginning to show on Edward’s face and the fragmentation of his sentences was a good sign. But it was also the most likely time for Edward to get hurt.

“Ed, did you check this symbol? It doesn’t look right.”

“What?! Of course it’s right!” Ed leaned over the edge of the circle to check the symbol Roy had pointed out. The second the knife was directed away from his heart, Riza grabbed Ed’s arm from behind, Roy pinned his other arm to his side and tried to restrict the movement of Ed’s automail leg.

“No! You can’t!” Ed struggled against their combined grip. “Alphonse! No, I don’t want to sleep again! NO! AL!!!”

The sedative Riza injected him with slowly took effect. His struggles progressively weakened. She ignored the tears running down the Colonel’s face as she went to fetch the bandages.

\-----

It didn’t used to be like this.

The days following Alphonse’s soul’s departure were hard but the team had pulled together around Edward. They coddled without coddling (all being aware of how well he was likely to react to sympathy). They provided company, let him talk when he needed and made sure he was eating. He spent the nights at Roy’s, occasionally sharing his bed for comfort (there had always been something there between them, both aware but neither speaking of it. Ed, too young to know the steps to the dance he was trying to start. Roy, all too aware of how young Ed was and even more aware of him being his subordinate.) but more often just enjoying his company.

They thought he was doing ok.

They were wrong.

The first hint was when he was dishonourably discharged for assaulting a senior officer. Assault was a slight understatement. Edward had tried to use the man as a new host for Alphonse’s soul by carving a transmutation circle directly onto him. Edward was convinced that as the man was a homunculus, he would be the perfect host. Despite extensive searches and examinations, Roy’s team eventually had to conclude that both of these conclusions were incorrect. Thankfully the Brigadier General had managed to hit a silent alarm in his home in time to have Edward stopped.

After spreading the word that Edward had returned to Resembool to recuperate following his brother’s death, Ed was relocated to Roy’s permanently.

His detachment began to grow. He was found talking to “Al” through the telephone. He started doodling transmutation circles which Roy recognised from the basement in Resembool. He became convinced the homunculi were watching them through the electric lights. When confronted about any of these, he grew rapidly angry and lashed out. Usually with a flesh fist but occasionally metal. And with growing frequency alchemy.

It nearly broke Roy when the doctor informed them there was nothing he could do. This was something Ed had to deal with himself and no one but Ed could realign his world view.

On his good days, Ed was happier that Roy had ever seen him. Affectionate in a way they hadn’t really had a chance to be (purely platonically. If Roy had an issue with being affectionate with someone so much younger, he had a much worse issue being affectionate with someone who appeared even younger mentally, not to mention unstable. Nothing could stop him loving him though.)

On Ed’s bad days, well on his bad days it was hard to forget that this was the person who had beat grown adults at a test that most studied their entire lives for at 14. On his bad days, Ed seemed to remember everything, was coldly logical and cutting and could usually be found formulating more and more insane (but brilliant) plans. Those were the days Roy dreaded as they were the closest to the Ed he remembered and that somehow hurt him the more.

\------

When the homunculus completed their circle and tortured the inhabitants of Amestris to death, Roy (holding tightly to Ed) was nearly glad.

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been with me for a long time. It was inspired by Not Like the Other Girls by The Rasmus. Originally there was more romance to it, a nice happy ending and all, but as I got older that didn't feel so realistic.  
> I finally sat down today and wrote this out. Any queries, comments or suggestions are welcome. Equally any kudos or comments you want to leave of a positive nature would also be welcome (would be extremely welcome!)  
> Right, I'm going to stop talking now. Thank you all for reading (and hope you enjoyed ... Though enjoy might be the wrong word)  
> Coletterby


End file.
